Fincantieri Embarks on Research Project to Protect Subsea Cables and Pipelines

The Fincantieri Foundation and Luiss Guido Carli University have launched a research initiative aimed at defining regulatory frameworks and developing operational solutions to protect subsea cables and pipelines.

The project, dubbed SUBCAP - SUBsea CAbles Protection, will promote multilevel, multidisciplinary legal research to establish a regulatory framework for the protection of critical subsea infrastructure.

It will be carried out by the Luiss research center “Law and Governance: Compliance, Security and Sustainability,” chaired by Professor Paola Severino.

The project aligns with Fincantieri’s broader efforts in maritime security and reflects a continuing commitment to collaboration with academia to develop innovative, sustainable, and advanced solutions.

The collaboration aims to define a clear and coherent legal framework for the protection of submarine infrastructure, specifically establishing the boundaries and conditions for protection activities in underwater domains, particularly in international contexts.

The project will conduct a comparative legal analysis—international, European, and national—and propose operational solutions to guide the deployment of advanced technologies such as sensors, sonar, drones, and autonomous underwater vehicles within a defined legal context.

Running until 2027, the two-year project will unfold in several phases, including comparative legal analysis, empirical data collection, development of regulatory recommendations, and public dissemination of findings.

“Protecting the underwater domain is a central strategic challenge for security and development in the coming decades.

“With the SUBCAP research project, we aim to make a tangible contribution to defining a clear and shared legal framework to accompany the evolution of technologies safeguarding submarine infrastructure. This collaboration with Luiss Guido Carli University marks another step toward an integrated industry-research approach to competently tackle future challenges,” said Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO and General Manager of Fincantieri.